Thursday, 30 June 2011

This tree in the back garden of Stanmer House was pruned hard after winter storms brought down some branches and, presumably, weakened others. It was still living then but seems to have died since. Whether death was due to over-enthusiastic pruning or natural causes I can't say but what we are left with looks like a modern statue.

Wednesday, 29 June 2011

Tuesday, 28 June 2011

Between the old brick wall of the council nursery and Stanmer Great Wood is an overgrown and rather neglected apple orchard. All the trees have discs indicating what variety they are. Most are Bramleys Seedlings though there are less common varieties such as Laxton's Fortune, Beauty of Bath and Yorkshire Greening. The apples are just there for the taking.

Monday, 27 June 2011

Sunday, 26 June 2011

From the Boss: It's quite disconcerting. I don't know if my map-reading skills are not what I thought or if Rocky Clump really is missing from the Ordnance Survey map. The picture shows part of Rocky Clump on the right and another copse slightly further down the hill. The map (in the side bar) shows only the second copse - it's on the blue line above the word "Stanmer". Rocky Clump should be a bit further west, up the hill towards the wood, more or less beneath the left hand "3" of the "33".

Saturday, 25 June 2011

Last night on the television the weather forecast was that today would be sunny. The picture above was taken from the bedroom window at 10.30 this morning. By way of comparison, the same view on a sunny day is shown below, looking over the Hollingbury industrial estate to Old Boat Corner and Stanmer woods.

Monday, 20 June 2011

Sunday, 19 June 2011

This covers many of the walks on which the pictures on this blog have been taken. The village of Stanmer is pretty much in the centre with Stanmer woods west and south of the village, including the Great Wood. Down in the south-west corner of the map is a blue triangle superimposed on a black circular line. This is the Roman camp (the triangle marks the trig point) and 39 Acres is just to the north of the words "Hollingbury Castle". The broken red lines mark footpaths and 39 Acres is in the triangle formed by three paths. The new stadium is in the south-east corner of the map.

Monday, 13 June 2011

Sunday, 12 June 2011

On the A23 road to London the northern boundary of Brighton is marked by two stone pillars, known as pylons. These originally stood one either side of the road but the road has since been widened so that the western pylon (the one in the picture) now stands in the central reservation.

From the website mybrightonandhove.org.uk:

The stone gate pillars are more properly known as the 'pylons'. They were erected to mark the northern limit of 'Greater Brighton' which was created on 1st April 1928. They "were designed by John Denman and have foundation stones laid by the Duke and Duchess of York on 30th May 1928 (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth). Buried inside are coins, copies of the Brighton & Hove Herald and the Sussex Daily News and also a bound book recording the laying of the foundation stones given by Mr. J.S. North. The cost was born by a public subscription of £993 and a contribution from Herbert Carden of £2,555. The western pylon bears the message: 'Hail guest, we ask not what thou art. If friend we greet thee hand and heart. If stranger no longer be. If foe our love shall conquer thee.'"

Monday, 6 June 2011

It did start raining yesterday but before that we had gone weeks without rain and the pastures grazed by sheep had started to turn brown. The barley is green but probably not as tall as it should be at this time.